DAUNTE CULPEPPER isn't the only NFL quarterback on the brink of a career season. Here are three other passers who, although at very different stages in their development, are having notable starts in 2004.

Providence coach Tim Welsh and his staff gave SI an inside look at their 13-month pursuit of this year's entering class. It was a process filled with red herrings, blind alleys, rejection, despair--and, in the end, high hopes

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything